William Barwell Turner: the Later Years

WILLIAM BARWELL TURNER: THE LATER YEARS

Peter B. Paisley

Sydney, Australia

William Barwell Turner (date of photograph unknown) from his obituary appreciation

All creatures small

Although Turner made mounts from a wide variety of material, including botanical, human and animal tissues, as time passed he became increasingly interested in smaller organisms. Like many others, he studied polyzoa, foraminifera and zoophytes: examples are shown below.

As a chemist and brewing expert, it would be strange had he not studied fungi, and some are shown below.

The entry below from the “notices to correspondents” section appeared in the February 1886 Science Gossip, in reply to a query to the editor:

This is probably our preparer: I have found no other trace of him in the queries, notices or exchange sections of Science Gossip, apart from a brief acknowledgement of his paper for the Royal Microscopical Society on new and rare desmids in 1879. The adjacent references to “Grevillea” and Cooke are probably significant, since Turner refers to both in Algae (p.70), in the same note. (As in other articles, I generally abbreviate the title of Turner’s book).

I have described Turner’s chemistry only sketchily – Micscape readers are interested in microscopy. But as one would expect, he made chemical mounts, and some are illustrated below. I include a mount of Japanese paper: he mounted dendritic spots on paper more than once, and was concerned with whether they were caused by inferior quality paper. By an uncanny coincidence, I found a dendritic spot on a page of one of my copies of Science Gossip while I was writing this article.

The writer’s own dendritic spot, in Science Gossip, February 1884

Turner’s “road to Damascus” moment

A voracious reader of scientific literature and a good Latinist, Turner chanced on a Swedish paper (in Latin), P.M. Lundell’s De Desmidiaceis quae in Suecia inventae sunt: observations criticae (Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Scient., Upsala 1871.) Already much interested in algae, this paper inspired Turner’s concentration on desmids. Not long after arrival in Leeds, he started his magnum opus on algae, particularly desmids. He corresponded with many Scandinavian workers, and concludes Algae Aquae Dulcis Orientalis thus:

Finally, I venture to express my sense of the great indebtedness of British Algophiles to Scandinavian authors, whose great erudition is only equalled by their courtesy and generosity.

It was heartfelt praise: despite practical backing from the Royal Microscopical Society, Turner struggled to get his book published in the UK, and it eventually appeared in 1892 in Stockholm, due to the influence of his Scandinavian friends and colleagues.

Adversity and perseverance

From around 1880, Turner’s health gradually deteriorated. His obituary specifies varicose veins, adding that in 1909 he suffered an amputation. The drastic outcome indicates dangerous complications. Varicose ulcers may get infected – no small threat in a pre-antibiotic era; deep vein thrombosis could cause cardiac or pulmonary embolism with atelectasis and further infection. The 1901 census shows him retired and incapacitated – however, what persisted was long in causing loss of a limb, nor did he die until 1917. Late onset diabetes was poorly appreciated (if at all) in those days: hypertension was inadequately defined and treated, and the significance of cholesterols was unknown. Any would add cumulative circulatory damage to areas of venous stasis and ulceration, as well as exacerbating any cardiac problems. His death certificate quotes the common final blow – pneumonia - with “arterial insufficiency” as the underlying condition. This latter vague diagnosis supports most of the above suggestions, and he was an inveterate pipe smoker, which could not have helped. On varicose veins, I do not know what was done. A professional chemist may have favoured the sclerosing injection starting to gain favour in the 1870s and 80s: long term however this was less successful than ligation. While rare, malignancy may occur in chronic varicose ulcers. Without family or hospital records, one can only make educated guesses: certainly, amputation is not a usual outcome due to varicose veins, nowadays at any rate. His obituary appreciation comments,

Hishealth broke down about 1891. Since that time he had been a chronic invalid……and for the past eight years was confined to the house, although able to carry on his studies whenever well enough to be in his sitting-room. His pursuit of those studies was unremitting, and his interest in them, as well as in current events, always keen and unflagging.

Added to this was the frustration of failing to find a British publisher, but he persevered until his book was finally ready for his Swedish publisher in October 1892. Given that this was already 5 months since his corn exchange business had been gazetted for debt, here was a man who lived up to his motto – ne cede malis.

Turner’s artistry

Turner made many fine lithographs of heraldry, which he coloured himself: some are in the Thoresby Society’s library. Examples are shown below.

He also illustrated his own book. Unlike (say) those of Ernst Haeckel, or his own heraldic work, his scientific drawings are unembellished, striving for accuracy rather than stylistic flourish, as below. In his articles for the Naturalist he often did his own lithography, but supervising this would have been impractical at the publication distance of Stockholm.

Turner drew all the illustrations for his book – they were lithographed by W. Schlachter of Stockholm.

One Victorian artistic genre was arranged mounts, and Turner tried his hand at some. He seems to have visited Ireland in July 1880: if sightseeing was on his agenda so, as always, was specimen collecting. In Galway, even a graveyard provided material: nor did he ignore other local resources, since a wooden slide (a most unusual medium for him) looks like Irish oak. Most material was gathered by him, but one slide shown below was mounted from material given to him by “W. Gray”. This must be William Gray, sometime president of the Belfast Field Naturalists’ Club, who may have shown him W.A. Firth’s arranged work.

Turner’s Irish mounts

Colleagues, correspondents and specimen suppliers

One likely source of material was himself, or his eldest son (also named William Barwell Turner). Turner slides are rarely signed: when they are, it is with initials in a distinctive style. Three examples are shown below, along with another slide on which the initials WBT are much more consistent with the way material source is often specified.

The slide on the left has initials characteristic of Turner’s indication of specimen donors. If he wanted human blood cells, what more convenient than to sample them at home?

Turner had many collaborators: I have already mentioned William Gray. The slides below, prepared from specimens from Birmingham, are interesting. The pebble slide is undated, but another, dated 1881, is made from a specimen obtained by James Abbott from a tree in the same road. Abbott and Turner collaborated in mounting a variety of material during their time in the Leeds club. My conjecture is that Turner and Abbott were at a meeting of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, where Turner’s friend A.W. Wills was a member and frequent presenter of communications on algae.

I have been unable to discover the significance of Moseley Road, which today is full of modern buildings, with few trees, most of which look like recent plantings. Presumably redevelopment, accelerated by the Luftwaffe, has been responsible. It may be that one of Wills’ industrial ventures had its premises there, or nearby (this was not his home address): from directories of the time, the street seems replete with light and medium industrial works.

One of Turner’s early major activities for the Leeds club, duly reported in the Naturalist, was his part in the three-man butterfly hunting team of Abbott, Emsley and Turner. All three made their own mounts, with a variety of subjects.

James Abbott and Fred Emsley , like Turner, had wide microscopical interests, as can be seen in the slides shown above.

The most distant contact was William M. Maskell, of Christchurch, New Zealand. Maskell was an ardent anti-Darwinist, while Turner accepted evolutionary theory: despite this, they enjoyed an amicable relationship, and Turner (Algae, pp.131-2) names a species, Staurastrum Maskellii, in his honour, referring to him as “my friendly correspondent”. Maskell reciprocated Turner’s gesture and named Cosmarium Turnerianum after him, saying,

I have ventured to attach to this plant the name of Mr. W.B. Turner, who has been kind enough to give me much help.

Cosmarium Turnerianum, from the illustrations to Maskell’s 1888 paper read to the New Zealand Institute.

James Perry was a sea captain with a home base in Liverpool, who voyaged widely on the S.S. Humboldt, in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and elsewhere: he died at sea in 1879. He was an enthusiastic naturalist and microscopist and an associate member of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society: associate members were limited to twenty-five, including several sea captains. He brought back rare Brazilian fish for the Liverpool aquarium, and obtained many dredged diatoms and foraminifera, as well as rare Brazilian beetles captured while on shore. He designed his own microscopical aids, including an erecting glass to reverse inverted images, making manipulation of specimens easier, and added gum camphor to paraffin for brighter lamp illumination. He made his own slides, often discussing the mounts with Frederic Kitton, and offered material to many others for mounting, witness his advertisement (Sept.1870) in Science Gossip

Kitton (Science Gossip, Feb. 1872) commends Perry’s use of nitric acid to reveal hitherto unknown features of foraminifera, and (Science Gossip, Apr.1873) says that many were indebted to Perry for supplying “rare and beautiful species of diatomaceae” for mounting. Turner may have responded to the notice above, and he was certainly well able to offer a wide variety of mounts in exchange. The slides below acknowledge Perry as the source of material.

Looking through the lists of 25 associate members of the Liverpool society in various years, the majority were always sea captains – presumably because they brought back exotic material for mounting by members, or for wider distribution to those who requested it. Turner was president of the Leeds Naturalists’ Club, and active in the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, around the time of Perry’s death, and we know he was an avid correspondent with many others both at home and abroad. The slides illustrated below are more than likely to have been made from material reaching the Liverpool society via Perry, or other sea captains. With the passage of time, the Liverpool society may have been unaware which captains were specifically involved in some of their stock, otherwise Turner would probably have acknowledged the source with initials or names.

Otto Norstedt, who was related to Linnaeus’ family, worked in Lund and travelled widely – as far as Australia and New Zealand – in search of desmids and characeae. I do not know whether Turner visited Scandinavia, but I think Norstedt came to Leeds; at any rate they met, and Turner singles him out for special mention in the foreword to his book, which concludes,

I must tender my grateful acknowledgement of assistance and kindly counsel received from my good friend Dr. Otto Norstedt, of Lund.

A secretary of the Leeds Naturalists’ Club, James Addyman, played an important role here: Addyman was Swedish and Norwegian Vice-Consul in Leeds, and visited both countries from time to time. Meetings between Addyman, Norstedt and Turner probably occurred in the Addyman and Turner homes. Addyman brought back specimens for Turner to mount, for instance from Norstedt, or the Stockholm Riks-Museum via the generosity of Gustaf von Lagerheim. Some slides mounted by Turner of Swedish and Norwegian material, supplied to him by Norstedt, are illustrated below (to make the labels legible, my illustration cannot also show the specimens).

Scandinavian material supplied by Otto Norstedt and mountedby Turner: the labels bear Norstedt’s initials

Turner’s oldest friend and fellow researcher was probably Arthur Winckler Wills: like Turner he was from Birmingham and an FCS: he was an industrialist, with microscopy as a major ancillary occupation, and had a keen interest in fresh water algae. He was one of the editors of A Dictionary of Chemistry (1863), and commonly referred to as “WW” (another editor had the initials AWW), as below (from the dictionary). Turner, familiar with the chemical literature, presumably thought of him as “WW”. Wills became president of the Birmingham Naturalists’ and Microscopical Society in 1871, and contributed often to the Midland Naturalist, with many papers on fresh water algae, and other subjects.

Turner (Algae, p.53) names Cosmocladium Willsianum in his honour.

The material on the slide above may have been gathered for Turner by Wills on a visit to Yorkshire: Cullingworth is not very far from Leeds, but far enough to present difficulty for a man with deteriorating health and varicose veins, if the specimen was mounted while Turner was at work on Algae. As Turner says in his introduction (p.10),

Long continued sickness delayed my work.

An obvious alternative is that the initials on the Cullingworth slide are those of William West, a pharmacist and Turner’s friend of later years, who lived in Leeds during Turner’s time there, subsequently moving to Bradford (Cullingworth is nearby). Turner’s obituary says,

He studied the fresh water algae in particular, corresponding with another Leeds man, the late William West, of Bradford.

It is a tantalisingly vague statement in the context of any possible mounting collaboration between the two men. West, in addition to acting as Tempère’s agent for slide sales, also made mounts himself, and an example is shown below.

A slide by William West of Bradford

There seems no way of deciding, on present evidence.

WW initials also cause me to reconsider the provenance of some of Turner’s earliest mounts. In my first article I guessed that Turner slides, made at Aldeby, showed insect specimens from Waveney Woods (“WW”). While Turner almost certainly got his introduction to the microscope and its revelations at school, Wills may have urged him to extend his activities to mounting. Several years Turner’s senior, Wills may have been Turner’s earliest mentor in slide preparation. Much later, Wills, himself an expert on fresh water algae, was probably a major influence on Turner to pursue similar research. There is however a much more likely provenance for the WW initials on Turner’s (1860) Aldeby mounts.

Aldeby is a very small place: even today its population is only a few hundred. In 1860, any local naturalist/microscopist in the village must have been well known, and would have attracted Turner’s attention. By 1862, just such a person was considering converting his enthusiasm for microscopy into a full time occupation, and seeking a subscription list for the slides he made. Insects were among the material he collected, and we know Turner mounted insects at Aldeby. I shall let the extract from the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, (1862, below) speak for itself.

I think this must be the WW of Turner’s Aldeby aphid mounts.

I should mention here another addition to what I have previously written. Turner’s obituary mentions work in Devon. Slides he made in Weymouth presumably originated there, on the English Channel coast. There was a ferry service from Weymouth round Cornwall and into the Bristol Channel, which Turner probably used to travel between his consultancies in Wales and Somerset. Given his fiancée’s residence in Bruton, he may have done so several times, but dates on the slides in my collection cannot confirm or deny this.

Wallich

George Charles Wallich is not often prominent in recent historiography: a perfunctory entry in the Dictionary of national Biography (below) is less than effusive.

Accounts of nineteenth century deep ocean biology tend to start with Edward Forbes’ azoic theory, ending with its alleged refutation by William Carpenter or more especially Wyville Thomson. From Forbes’ idea that oceanic life was impossible below a few thousand feet, one reaches contradictory evidence, particularly from the Lightning, Porcupine, and Challenger voyages, that life exists at extreme ocean depths. In between, Wallich’s contributions seem to have receded into comparative obscurity. Yet it was his books of 1860 and 1862 which produced a comprehensive challenge to Forbes’ theory, at the time regarded by many almost as gospel. From notebooks written on board the Bulldog, Wallich “dipped a toe in the water” with a short volume, Notes on the Presence of Animal Life at Vast Depths in the Sea: with Observations on the Nature of the Sea Bed, as Bearing on SubmarineTelegraphy, circulated privately in 1860. As he says there (p.7),